Perception of Factors Influencing Primary Health-Care Facility Choice Among National Health Insurance Enrollees of a Northwest Nigerian Hospital

Background: The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) of Nigeria was designed to eliminate known cultural, physical, and resource-related barriers to quality health-care access. Although choice of primary health-care facility (PHF) remains in the domain of the scheme enrollees, little is known about factors influencing their choice. Hence, the study of the perception of factors influencing PHF choice among NHIS enrollees of a northwest Nigerian hospital becomes imperative. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of 284 principal enrollees randomly selected from patients attending the NHIS clinic of Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano, Nigeria, using a designed, pretested, investigator-administered questionnaire. Their sociodemographics and factors influencing their choice of the clinic were assessed. Results: Respondents’ mean age was 40.9 ± 9.0 years and they were predominantly males (83.1%) with tertiary education. Median distance between their homes and PHF was 7.6 ± 12.5 km. Most respondents were aware of other accredited PHFs in the city and believed it was their right to choose a PHF. Among the various factors influencing their choice of index PHF were better functioning equipment (83.5% of respondents), more specialists/trained health workers (78.5%), ease in receiving specialist care (69.4%), and better overall quality of care (78.9%). Conclusion: There are multiple factors associated with enrollee choice of PHF in this study. The NHIS enrollees value the presence of functioning equipment/facilities, ease in receiving specialist care, and overall high quality of care in their choice of PHF. Improving enrollee enrollment at accredited PHF may require addressing these factors.